Tara and Trav; New York First-Timers;)

Wow-- it's been one month to the date since I last posted anything on my blog--- soooo much has happened! It started off with a fun visit from Tara and Travis-- it was their first time in the Big Apple;)


They arrived on one of the most beautiful mornings we'd had in New York since before winter! This was the only full day that I would have to explore the city with them, as I would be working the majority of the time that they were there. We saw lots of fun things together and they had lots of fun on their own too exploring the city together. Tara even won the lottery and so they got to go see Wicked together!


I had to show them the Union Square Farmers Market-- one of my favorite places in the city.

This performer was amazing! He was playing the banjo, singing, using his foot-pedal on his suitcase as a base with one foot and simultaneously tapping his other foot on the tambourine. Awesome~!

Pommes Frites is a restaurant that sells only Belgium Frys and their own fry sauce combinations:

My favorite is the Pomegranate Teriyaki-- Tara and Trav were a little bit sceptical, but they were super sports and actually loved it!


It's kinda got weird decorations inside-- it looks like a shack, with old fashion pictures and decor-- so random. . . so perfect for New York!

We came upon the Carl Fischer publishing building-- that Tara and I (well, mostly our parents) helped pay for as they have purchased numerous Carl Fischer publications for our music library over the years.

It was fun exploring the city through Tara and Trav's eyes. There were lots of fun colored dorm buildings around NYU. I'm sure it makes it a lot easier for students to find their friends buildings. . . I can hear it now. . .

"I'm the yellow one". . .

"Look for the pink brick. . . ya can't miss it!"

Look at what the sun brought out! So many people just sitting around-- no festival or big concert going on. . . just people excited to finally be able to get out and sit in the park!

I work very near Madison Square Garden and I'd wanted to see the Nick's play ever since I'd lived in the city-- I told my colleague Alan, and his son was able to hook us up with some tickets for Tara, Trav and myself-- it actually was an awesome game! Thanks Andy!!!

We were sOoOo excited!

It took us forever to finally leave because there were so many people trying to get down the escalator at the same time. We stood by this sign for a while. . . it was starting to make me thirsty!

Here's the Empire State Building--

I took Tara and Trav to one of my favorite restaurants-- Sook! This is a Tai restaurant-- they loved it!

Another fun place that we went to. . . and a first for all of us. . . was the Stardust Diner. It was awesome! All of the servers are performers-- they told us that lots of them actually end up on Broadway. . . I wasn't surprised, they were stellar performers! It had such a fun atmosphere! We felt like were were sitting on the set of Grease! The food was yummy too;)

Our last day together, we went clear downtown to see the New York Public Library. . . I would have taken pictures. . . but they weren't allowed. We got Soaked! It was pouring rain and soooo windy. . . there were broken umbrella's everywhere! We struggled finding a cab that would save us from the storm and take us where we needed to go, but we finally found one-- and we were ever so grateful!

Tara and Trav safely made it to the airport. . . but due to inclement weather. . . their flight got cancelled! I felt so bad for them. . . haha no, selfishly I was so glad to keep them for a couple more days!

Later that week, I experimented with a few more recipes. . .

Here are some dried edamame's. . .

And egg drop soup! Both were so easy. . . and so yummy!